Bringing Tulsa Together

class="headline">We will work with Tulsa County to modernize local government, and we will partner with schools to establish Tulsa as the premier place in Oklahoma to receive an education.

Tulsa’s greatest assets are our people. We work hard, we care about our families, and we have a strong desire to do what is right. Too often, however, we are segmented into our own silos. This has to stop.

When I first joined the council, all too often divisiveness dominated City Hall. We all remember the headlines. There were lawsuits, ouster attempts, recall petitions, and many elected leaders simply did not speak to each other. My first priority when joining the council was to promote a unifying approach. Fortunately, through perseverance and a lot of listening, I was successful. I developed the practice of holding an annual Mayor-Council retreat, reducing bickering at City Hall and focusing the city on a more proactive agenda. It is this same approach I will take to continue to unite Tulsa toward our common goals.

Our city and county simply must do a better job of working together. We serve the same people. It is not a competition, but should be a partnership. My experience working with the County Commissioners on our Improve Our Tulsa and the current Vision proposal has given me the relationships and the insight to grow this collaboration. We must continue to talk and find ways to reduce duplication, save taxpayer resources, and improve the quality of the services we provide for Tulsa families.

I have already begun working with our local school districts to find the right way for our city to partner with them. I advocated for the current Vision proposal to include partnering with our school districts to address their teacher shortage crisis, and I led the effort to improve the relationship between our city police department and Tulsa Public Schools because we all want our children to be safer. As mayor, I will have regular dialogue with Jenks, Union, and Tulsa Public Schools to find the appropriate way for the city to aid all of us in reaching our goals. Together, I know we can accomplish the high expectation of establishing Tulsa as the premier place in Oklahoma to receive an education.

Bringing Tulsa together means making certain North Tulsa, Midtown and East Tulsa all prosper; that South Tulsa and West Tulsa thrive. It means engaging every neighborhood and, while maintaining unique identities, working together for the common good. For example: no Tulsan should sit idly by while a child born in one part of town has a life expectancy of 12 years less than someone born in another part of our city. Together, we can tackle this and other problems. We cannot let artificial divisions, partisan labels, geography or cultural differences divide us. It must be together. Together, we can build the kind of city we will be proud to pass on to the next generation.